Back in 2003, I blogged about the must-read comic book/graphic novel series "Y: The Last Man." Yesterday I picked up the fifth collection in the series, Ring of Truth, and read the whole thing on the way home on the tube.
The plot of Y: The Last Man is a pretty straightforward apocalyptic tale: one day, every man on earth drops dead, blood gushing from their noses and mouths, leaving no one behind but women, and one man, and one male monkey (his pet — a helper monkey he's been training). The setup rapidly progresses into a gripping, funny, sad and lovely tale of the post-apocalyptic world.
Book five seems to be firmly on the downhill side toward a conclusion, something we don't get nearly often enough in the world of funnybooks. The art is tremendous, too — there's a page 60 showing a teenage girl storming away from Thanksgiving dinner that is possibly the most expressive bit of comic book art I've ever seen.
Update: Javier sez, "The first issue of 'Y: The Last Man' is available as a PDF
file from the DC Comics website."
